The news over the past few years has been nothing if not serious, with issues such as Brexit and Covid creating an environment through which concerns have been expressed about the impact of excessive consumption on our mental health.

It’s a period, however, where comedy-news programs, such as those headed by the likes of John Oliver and Stephen Colbert, have gained in popularity.  These programs have blended news and entertainment, and new research from the University of Pennsylvania explores whether this blended approach could be effective in informing the public.

The study found that when viewers watched both humorous and non-humorous news clips, they were significantly more likely to share the humorous stories.  While that’s perhaps to be expected, the content was also remembered better from the humorous content.

“For democracy to work, it is really important for people to engage with news and politics and to be informed about public affairs,” the researchers say. “We wanted to test whether humor might make news more socially relevant, and therefore motivate people to remember it and share it.”

Infotainment

The researchers signed up a number of young adults and asked them to watch a range of news clips, some of which ended with jokes and others which reflected more regular news content.  Each volunteer had their brain activity monitored with fMRI scanners, with memory tests also administered to explore how much information the volunteers were retaining.  They were also asked how likely they would be to share the content.

The results suggest that they were more likely to both remember and share news about government policy and politics in general when it was conveyed in a humorous manner.  These clips generally elicited more train activity, especially in the areas linked to thought and feelings.

“Our findings show that humor stimulates activity in brain regions associated with social engagement, improves memory for political facts, and increases the tendency to share political information with others,” the researchers say. “This is significant because entertainment-based media has become an important source of political news, especially for young adults. Our results suggest that humor can increase knowledge about politics.”